Fighting Family

20

Weylen's POV

Shopping with Ryder was fun even if we were just shopping for groceries. Everything was a game with him so most of our time was spent running around the store randomly, trying to see who could find the next item on the list first.

People stared and whispered behind their hands but Ryder didn't seem to care and Callum wasn't here to make us behave so I allowed myself to act like a heathen for once without repercussions.

It took us far longer than the short list would have normally taken but when we finally headed to the checkout Ryder caught a glimpse of the book section.

"No one is going to miss us for a bit longer," he said as he turned the cart down the aisle.

I followed him because he was the only adult I knew in the store and because who could say no to books?

We spent far longer in the book section than anyone had a right to considering how small it was but by the time Ryder declared us done, he had multiple books shoved under his arms. He frowned when he noticed I was putting my books back on the shelf as I committed their titles to memory for later.

"You aren't getting anything," he asked as he put the books into the cart and shook out his arms at the weight.

"I'm still grounded," I frowned. "Callum said no new books for a month for switching classes."

"Well, Callum's not here is he," Ryder asked with a small smirk as he pulled out a book from the shelf that I had been looking at and put it in the cart. "I'll just throw the receipt away and he'll never know."

"I can just wait until I'm not grounded anymore," I dismissed, my heart pounded at the thought of disobeying Callum. He's calmed down a lot from when it first happened but he was pretty pissed and I never wanted to see Callum like that again.

"It might not be here later," Ryder whined. "It's a limited edition, signed copy! And it's the last one. It will definitely be gone in a few weeks. Callum never goes in your room either. He's not going to notice one extra book as long as you don't read it in the living room and even then he probably doesn't remember any of the names you got last time. Between the two of us, I think it was kind of unfair to punish you that harshly when Axel was the one who caused the bigger problem."

I frowned at that. I had thought the same thing when it first happened. All I did was agree to the switch, Axel was the one who threw a book and cussed out a teacher but I should have known better than to go along with his plan so it was my fault in the end too.

I bit my lip. The book did look really nice and Ryder was right, it would be gone by the time I was allowed to get it. But at the same time, a fancy cover didn't affect the words in the book.

"How about this," Ryder said as he put the book in the cart. "I'll get the book for me but after all of these books, my shelf will be full so I'll have to use yours as storage until I get around to cleaning my shelf out. That way it's still my book and I'm only using your shelf as storage and if you happen to read it, then you just assumed you were allowed to because it was on your shelf."

"That doesn't seem much better," I said but followed him as he turned the cart to the checkout again.

"Callum won't even know, I promise."

My heart was still beating out of my chest but the second the clerk scanned the book and put it in a bag I knew it was too late to protest.

I felt like a criminal.

The second we got inside the house I took the book, hidden under my shirt, and ran to my room while Callum and Jax helped unload the car.

I slammed my door shut the second I stepped through the threshold and threw my body against it. My heart was still beating far faster than it had any right to and my palms were all but soaked with sweat.

I stayed there for a second, listening for anyone coming up the stairs to rip the book out from my hands. All I could hear was Ryder talking to Callum and Jax about how his day had gone so far. From what I could hear, no one suspected a thing yet.

I sighed as I pushed off the door and headed to the bookshelf. I turned the book around in my hands and caught a glimpse of the sticker on the front. I hated stickers on my books and if Axel saw it he would know it was new since that was the first thing I always did when I got a new book.

I tried to be as quiet as possible as I started peeling the sticker away. My fingernails were too short to be of much help and instead of peeling off perfectly, most of the paper was left behind.